Company House Search – WordPress Plugin

A secure, lightweight WordPress plugin that integrates with the official UK Companies House Public Data API to let visitors search UK companies, company officers, and disqualified officers directly on your website via a simple shortcode.

Features

• Company Search: Search registered UK companies by company name or registration number (GET /search/companies).
• Company Profile Modal: View detailed company profiles (GET /company/{companyNumber}) including:
  • Registered Office Address, Company Status, Company Type, and Incorporation Date
  • Next & Last Accounts dates
  • Confirmation Statement dates
  • Nature of Business (SIC codes)
  • Previous Company Names & effective periods
• Company Officers Tab: View active and resigned officers for any selected company (GET /company/{company_number}/officers).
• Officer Search: Search company officers by name (GET /search/officers).
• Disqualified Officers Search: Search disqualified officers (GET /search/disqualified-officers) and inspect full natural/corporate disqualification records (GET /disqualified-officers/natural/{officer_id} & /disqualified-officers/corporate/{officer_id}).
• Secure Server-Side API Proxy: All requests are routed through WordPress (admin-ajax.php) using HTTP Basic Authentication (base64_encode( $api_key . ':' )). Your API key is stored on the server and never exposed in frontend HTML or browser network traffic.
• Smart Key Compatibility: Automatically supports Live REST keys, Web (JavaScript origin) keys, and Sandbox/Test keys.
• Scoped & Responsive Styling: All CSS rules are scoped under .ch_wrapper so they will not conflict with your WordPress theme.

Requirements

• WordPress: 5.0 or higher
• PHP: 7.2 or higher
• Companies House API Key: Free registration at the Companies House Developer Hub

Installation

1. Clone or download this repository into your WordPress plugins directory:

   cd wp-content/plugins/
   git clone https://github.com/pawansharma06/company-house.git

   (Or upload the company-house folder to /wp-content/plugins/ via FTP or zip upload).

2. Activate Company House Search from the Plugins menu in WordPress Admin.
3. Navigate to Company House in the WordPress Admin sidebar.
4. Paste your Companies House API Key and click Save Settings.

Generating a Companies House API Key

1. Sign in to the Companies House Developer Hub.
2. Create an application (choose Live environment for real company data).
3. Create an API key:
   • Choose REST as the application type (recommended for server-side requests).
   • Tip for Local Development (XAMPP / localhost): Leave Restricted IPs blank while testing locally so your local IP address is not rejected with an HTTP 400 error.
4. Copy the generated API key and paste it into WP Admin → Company House → API Key.

Usage

Shortcode

Add the shortcode to any page, post, or widget block:

[company_house]

PHP Template

To render the search interface directly inside a theme template file:

<?php echo do_shortcode( '[company_house]' ); ?>

Customization

All frontend elements are wrapped inside .ch_wrapper and styled via css/ch.css. You can override any style in your theme's Additional CSS:

• .ch_wrapper .ch_search_form – Search form wrapper
• .ch_wrapper .ch_tab_btn – Category tabs (Companies, Officers, Disqualified Officers)
• .ch_wrapper .ch-btn – Search submit button
• .ch_wrapper .ch_results_table – Results table
• .ch_wrapper .ch_popup_info – Company / Officer details modal dialog

Changelog

2.0.1

• Security: Moved all Companies House API requests to a server-side WordPress AJAX proxy (wp_ajax_ch_api_request) with nonce verification so the API key is never exposed in frontend HTML.
• Added: Search tabs for Companies, Officers, and Disqualified Officers.
• Added: Officers tab inside the company profile modal and full disqualification details modal.
• Improved: Automatic authorization fallback for REST keys, Web keys (Origin header), and Sandbox keys, plus RFC 3986 query encoding and detailed error messages.
• Fixed: Shortcode output buffering (ob_start() / ob_get_clean()), pagination off-by-one bug, null-safe property handling in JavaScript, and scoped CSS selectors.

1.0

• Initial release.

License & Attribution

• Licensed under the GPL v2 or later.
• Public data retrieved from Companies House is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contact & Support

• Author: Pawan Sharma (Planetary Marketing)
• Email: info@planetarymarketing.in